Major Spoilers Question Of The Day: Spoilers Of The Daleks Edition

News broke this week that the first few scripts for Doctor Who’s new season (featuring the first full-length appearances of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor) have been leaked online, causing the BBC to implore those with access to NOT make them public, and spoiler the new series before it starts. While I’m not at all surprised by the leak, I am interested in seeing the responses from internet denizens to the reveal. Some are angry with the leakers, others are derisive of BBC’s attempt to control the situation,and at least one petition NOT to reveal the events of the scripts has been drafted. Honestly, though, in today’s on-demand camera-in-every-pocket society, it’s rather surprising that this sort of thing doesn’t happen much more often, leading us to today’s illicitly-photocopied query…

The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) generally has no problem avoiding spoilers, but often doesn’t watch things during their first run anyway, asking: Does knowing that these spoiler-filled Doctor Who scripts exist make you want to know what secrets they contain?

Share this:

The Author

Matthew Peterson

Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture!

Not at all. There’s a bell-shaped curve to “Wanting Spoilers”. On the far left (low probability of intentional spoilers) are things that I care very much about. On the far right (also low probability of intentional spoilers) are things that I have absolutely zero concern for. In the middle (highest probability for spoilers) are those things for which I have a mild to moderate interest, but not strong enough to go see on day one.

Is the new Star Trek movie a remake of Wrath of Khan? Sure, I’ll spoil that. Plot points for the new Star Wars? No thanks! Plot points for The Purge sequel? Who cares!

I won’t seek out the scripts, but I wouldn’t be devastated by learning the spoilers. Doctor Who, for me, is about the journey more than the destination. We see The Doctor in peril all the time, but we know nothing permanently bad will happen to him, yet we still watch and wonder where it is going. Even knowing the scripted version of the episode only reveals so much since things always change a bit between script and episode. Lots of things could be cut, or sometimes rearranged, making the story of the script and the story of the episode almost two different stories.